The FOP letter assumes devs can be turned into choke points for tracing, but Bitcoin's public ledger already gives investigators the chain data they need without conscripting coders. Treating non-custodial software authors as money transmitters just shifts the target from actual criminals to anyone shipping open-source wallets or protocol fixes, which raises the cost of maintaining the very tools that make self-custody viable.
The FOP letter assumes devs can be turned into choke points for tracing, but Bitcoin's public ledger already gives investigators the chain data they need without conscripting coders. Treating non-custodial software authors as money transmitters just shifts the target from actual criminals to anyone shipping open-source wallets or protocol fixes, which raises the cost of maintaining the very tools that make self-custody viable.